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walskishere's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
I think the actual plot was pretty good, solid. How the book was written, though, the writing style, did not seem like a sequel to The Handmaid's Tale. It didn't have the same stiff writing. I'm unsure if that's [stiff] how Atwood writes, or if that was to help set the scene for The Handmaid's Tale. The tone was different, but that may have been intentional, as Agnes grew up in Gilead + June/Offred did not.
I guessed pretty much all of the plot/plot "twists". This made it a little annoying to get thru, because I already pretty much knew what was going to happen. I have a theory that it was written so obviously, because it was so obvious that Trump was going to fuck shit up. This was reinforced by allusions to the small and subtle, but horrible changes leading up to Gilead taking over the USA.
I guessed pretty much all of the plot/plot "twists". This made it a little annoying to get thru, because I already pretty much knew what was going to happen. I have a theory that it was written so obviously, because it was so obvious that Trump was going to fuck shit up. This was reinforced by allusions to the small and subtle, but horrible changes leading up to Gilead taking over the USA.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Excrement, Genocide, and Torture
Moderate: Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Homophobia
anartfulreader's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The Testaments leads on from The Handmaid's Tale but also feels like a very different book. It takes place mainly within Gillead but follows some extremely different perspectives, a girl raised in Gillead, a girl raised outside of Gillead and also Aunt Lydia. These perspectives give so much more to the story of The Handmaid's Tale. Particularly Aunt Lydia's perspective was very interesting as it makes you think about power, how to get it and what you should do with it, leading to questions such as 'what would I do?'. It very much blurs the lines of right and wrong.
Having a perspective from outside of Gillead brings another view. This made it seem even more real as it firmly plants The Handmaid's Tale in a world just like our own.
I found The Handmaid's Tale a very slow novel that mainly looked at different characters, The Testaments went at a quicker pace with alot more happening throughout the book, but none of the character building was hindered and was very interesting to learn about the other positions in the system such as the aunts. Particularly loved hearing about the interactions between the aunts and the way they each played on each other to get whats they wanted.
Ending the book we were left to our own ideas as it was again quite ambiguous and didn't give too much away. It was a brilliant book and again like The Handmaid's Tale really was food for thought.
Having a perspective from outside of Gillead brings another view. This made it seem even more real as it firmly plants The Handmaid's Tale in a world just like our own.
I found The Handmaid's Tale a very slow novel that mainly looked at different characters, The Testaments went at a quicker pace with alot more happening throughout the book, but none of the character building was hindered and was very interesting to learn about the other positions in the system such as the aunts. Particularly loved hearing about the interactions between the aunts and the way they each played on each other to get whats they wanted.
Ending the book we were left to our own ideas as it was again quite ambiguous and didn't give too much away. It was a brilliant book and again like The Handmaid's Tale really was food for thought.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Rape, Sexism, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide
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